


Albus Potter and the Denial of Blatant Homosexuality

by Fogo_Ilse_of_FIRE2121



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Albus and Scorpius are both in Slytherin, Author is Kinda Bitter, But he's still a geek, EVEN THE STRAIGHTS!!!, Everyone's a gay disaster, M/M, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Original Character(s), Past Relationship(s), Quidditch Scorpius, kinda slow burn, poetically waxing over your crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2020-07-10 03:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19898980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fogo_Ilse_of_FIRE2121/pseuds/Fogo_Ilse_of_FIRE2121
Summary: Will Albus Potter realise his feelings for his best friend Scorpius Malfoy and act on them before he pushes him away?6th year Scorbus fic. Please don't judge me too hard. Not CC compliant because fuck that queerbaiting mess, waste of good paper. Some oc's but that's because CC gave me no new good characters to work with. Author is bitter. And needs a way to waste time on summer break.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> All rights go to JK. This is my first fic, so if it's really bad that's why. We all have to start somewhere right? *chuckles nervously* The one thing I can promise is that this will be updated semi-regularly because I'm on summer break and I literally have nothing else to do. Anyways on to the story.

The air is warm. There is a soft breeze coming from the rolling grey ocean, and every few moments Albus can feel the cool ocean water touch his toes. There’s a lightness that he has never felt before. He opens his eyes and he looks up to a cloudy sky. Then he looks to his other side and he sees Scorpius. They’re both wearing black muggle swimsuits, Scorpius is looking down at him, a soft smile toying with his lips. His eyes are slightly wrinkled, he has beautiful eyes. They’re the same colour as the sky and ocean, but not combined. They’re not mixed like in a painting, they are an orchestra. An orchestra of colour. Albus wishes he had eyes like that. If Albus had even a little bit of Scorpius’s beauty then he’d probably get more girls then his brother James, and that’s saying something. “Albus,” Scorpius said. He sounded a million miles away. When he said it again it was louder, “Albus.” Then the sand turned cotton-like, and the sky turned black.

“Albus! Albus!”

“MmmmMM”

“Albus wake up now!”

Albus felt his pillow being tugged out from under his head and thrown onto his face. “Albus, it’s noon. And you’re still not up! How have you slept for so long?” Albus recognized the genuinely bewildered voice belonging to his mother, as well some puttering noises around his room. He sat up, lifting the pillow off his head and with great effort opened his eyes. His mother was in his dresser, her hands madly ruffling the shirts he had neatly folded the evening prior.

“Why are all your clothes black?”

“My clothes aren’t all black!” said Albus, outraged at the suggestion.

“Well, I suppose they’re not all black… a few of them are dark grey” Ginny sarcastically smiled then threw a pair of black jeans and looked at him curiously, her light brown eyes searching him.

“You’ve forgotten haven’t you.”

“What is it I’m supposed to have forgotten, my alarm?”

“The family get-together we’re having here this evening. Before all of you go off to Hogwarts again.” Then she took out a light grey T-shirt before putting it back, muttering to herself

“I thought we weren’t doing that this year? You know-with Gran’s hip?”

It had become a Weasley clan tradition since the very first Weasley grandchild went off to Hogwarts (Teddy) that on the night before the night before the night before the 1st of September, every single Weasley or family friend all gathered at The Burrow to have a rather large potluck. Originally Gran cooked but as the family got bigger and bigger it just became quite impossible. The grandchildren, or the “Next-Gen” as the papers so kindly referred to them all, pretended to find the gathering bothersome, however, all secretly rather enjoyed one of the few moments of the year where the entire family was in the same place. However after a nasty fall down a flight of one of the burrows many stairs, Gran the hostess injured her hip. After the initial shock and worry on her well being, everyone was quite disappointed that the Hogwarts-send off potluck would have to be canceled.

“Just because we can’t have it at The Burrow doesn’t mean we can’t have it here.” 

Ginny put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows, daring her son to make an annoyed remark. Albus had never liked big family gatherings and he wasn’t afraid to make his opinion known. Rolling his eyes and sinking back into his charcoal bed sheets he said,  
“Great, just great, a bunch of wizards with next to no respect for secrecy laws in a muggle residential neighborhood, this isn’t Ottery St Catchpole, they can’t have a god awful quidditch game in the yard.”

“Give your family some credit Al,” exasperated GInny, “it’s not like they’re going to go ‘round casting spells in plain view of the street.”

Finally settling on a black button-up shirt she tossed it into the middle of Albus’s chest, who made no attempt to catch it.

“It’s Albus-and maybe not, but if Grandad starts loudly talking about how clever muggles are to create cars instead of just flying they’re going to be suspicious. They already think we’re some weird type of Amish.”

“What do you know about what the muggles think of us, what do you care?” she chuckled, Albus gave a grave sigh.

“Doesn’t matter. Just go and let me get changed.”

“If you’re not down in 10 to do some tasks, I’ll be back up, and if I find you asleep I’ll be a lot less nice waking you up again” Albus stood from the bed and began to usher her towards the door. 

“Yes, Yes, Yes, love you too” he shut it, leaning his head against the wood he breathed a sigh of relief.

He inspected his drawers. He threw his head back and scrunched his nose. His mother had ruined all of his foldings, and with Hogwarts coming so soon there wasn’t much of a point in refolding it all over again. Dressing with the clothes his mother had picked out for him he looked at his reflection in the mirror nailed to his wall, 

“Passable enough,” he said aloud to no one. 

Although he hated to admit it, his mother was right, he was wearing all black to his socks to his chipping black nail varnish. His room had a lot of black too, black bedding, black furniture, black curtains, he wanted a black rug and navy blue walls but his mother had refused. It was their first and only real shouting match, she won obviously, with his grey walls and rug. He took a deep breath. “Well let’s get this over with,” and walked down the dark oak staircase into the Potter living room.

The Potter living room, though a few exceptions, was exemplarily ordinary. The walls were a warm grey aptly named “Warm Cup of”, except for the fireplace, where many family photos showing the Potters big, albeit, mostly smiling family. Blankets and decorative pillows had been thrown on the mismatched furniture to give the room a very lived-in feeling. The kitchen, which could be seen from the living room, had new stainless steel appliances and a rather decorative collection of cleverly labeled mugs hung above the sink. Yes, the Potter house all seemed quite normal. As long as you didn’t read those cups that is. Because if you read those cup you would see “Happy New Year” or “I Hate Monday’s” however you would also see cups proudly labeled “World’s Best Auror,” “Holly Head Harpies” or Ginny, Harry, James and Lily’s favourite, and Albus’s least favourite “Gryffindor Pride.”

When Albus came downstairs he was greeted with a smirk from his little sister Lily, She was sprawled over the sofa wearing a daffodil yellow dress that Albus thought must be vintage, and her fiery red hair was curled for the party. She was reading a Witch Weekly with a very handsome olive-skinned boy on the cover. 

“Did you get all your beauty sleep?”

Albus turned to see James leaning on the staircase. Wearing a light blue button-up his hazel eyes mischievous as always. 

“After all, it must take so much energy to mope around in the dark plotting.” 

Albus, already regretting coming downstairs gave a hefty eye roll and a retort that began and ended with his middle finger. 

“Albus, can you not?”

Lily sighed, threw her magazine to her side and sat up on the couch. 

“Just because you dress like a grandmother doesn’t mean you have to act like one.” Albus mocked before walking over to the chair nearest the fireplace, tossed the decorative pillow in her face and slumping down. James stopped leaning on the staircase, his brows knitted and his mouth formed a tight line.

“James you look like someone just insulted your girlfriend.”

“You can’t show up 12:40 and act like a cunt, me and Lily have been cleaning all morning.” James sounded exasperated. Which made sense considering he had been saying a version of this to Albus all summer.

“Lily and I, also it’s 12:46” Albus softly condescended.

“James is right Al, you’re acting like an arse.”

“No, James said I’m acting like a cunt, pick and choose.” Albus closed his eyes and rested on the chair.

“I say your acting like both.”

“Well, you have about 2.5 more days that you have to spend with me, after that I doubt we’ll talk much.” 

James and Lily both went dead silent and looked down. Albus had spoken an uncomfortable, slightly hurtful truth. Neither of them really saw their brother at all during the school term, and with it being James’s last year at Hogwarts they had both came to the unspoken conclusion that they wouldn’t write to one another when Albus went to his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. To be fair to the both of them, Lily had tried to spend time with her brother in her first year, and James would talk to Albus if he went and talked to him first. But Albus made no effort, and usually tried to give his family as much of a wide berth as possible. His change in behavior from shy but kind child, to irritable loner, and in the words of James, Rose, Hugo, Freddie, Roxanne, Victoire, Dominique, Louis and Uncle George “Such a Buzzkill,” had been chalked up to him being the only one sorted into Slytherin, a house infamous for dark magic and bigotry.

Albus knew his family's position on his house. After he was sorted there was a lot of “it doesn’t matter if you’re a Slytherin, we’ll still love you,” or “it doesn’t matter if you’re a Slytherin, it was bound to happen to somebody,” Albus felt a lot of despite-ness. “We’ll still be here for you in spite of being a Slytherin,” and although his family never talked of there feeling towards Slytherin in front of him, he had it under good authority that his sorting didn’t dissuade his family’s opinions, but rather confirmed them. Again to be fair to his family Albus hadn’t exactly achieved excellence in Slytherin like the others had achieved in their respective houses. The first few years of Albus’s schooling he really struggled, only with the help of Scorpius Malfoy his best friend he didn’t fail. Eventually, in fourth year he finally started to become acceptably mediocre, which would have been fine, if he wasn’t in a family that thrived on their excellence.

The awkward silence was finally interrupted with Ginny’s ascent from the basement carrying a basket of laundry. She placed it in front of her daughter on the coffee table.   
“Your father will be home in a moment, Lily darling can you fold these clothes? And boys, can you set the tables outside?” 

“Sure Mum,” they all chorused, getting up and going about their tasks thankful for a distraction.

Neither Ginny nor Harry were particularly avid gardeners, so although the backyard was very big, there were no flowers or greenery other than grass, fencing and in front of that, a massive hedge that seemed two meters too tall. In the middle of the yard, there was a long wooden table with stacked chairs to either side and a folded printed table cloth on top. Albus and James looked at each other. 

“You take the left, I’ll take the right.”

Albus nodded in agreement and began to unstack the chairs. James kept nervously glancing towards Albus, he legitimately had no idea why. He looked like he wanted to say something, Albus wondered what it was. When the final chairs were stacked James motioned to Albus. 

“Help me spread out the table cloth yeah?” Albus handed him one side of the table cloth. James looked at his painted nails and smirked,

“Where do you buy your nail varnish anyway? You can’t be raiding Lil’s or Mum’s closets, what are you getting it from, your boyfriend's house?” James loosely laughed and gave his signature easy-going smile.

“Same place you buy your hair potion, what do you use again? Coconut Explosion? Or is it Intelligence Cleanse?” Albus snapped, throwing the table cloth up in the air and then setting it down for emphasis.

“Are you physically unable to take a damn joke?” James questioned angrily, smoothing out the cloth.

“I am. You’re just not funny.”

James glared at him. But Albus glared back. And if James had a signature smile then Albus had a signature glare. Cold and unmoving it would fill you with a sense of dread, not enough to make you cry, but enough to make tears spring at the corner of your eyes. It was impossible to win a glowering fight with Albus, although many have tried. But James was saved by noise coming from the house. 

“Dad’s home.” they both said, only with very different tones.

When they walked back into the house their father Harry Potter was still wearing his work clothes, a light grey jacket-robe black pressed pants and matching tie. Sitting on a stool on the granite kitchen table eating grapes.

“Where’s Mum?” Albus said coldly.

“She’s in the shower getting ready. James go upstairs and clean your room it’s a state”

“Oh, so you’re not going to tell Albus to clean up his room?”

“Albus’s room is clean, now go.” And with one final glare at Albus James went upstairs.

“Sit, please” Harry warmly said to Albus as he gestured to the chair. Albus sat and popped a grape in his mouth.

“These are good.”

“They are, your aunt Audrey picked them from her greenhouse a few weeks ago, are you excited to see her at the party?”

Albus could have laughed out loud. His father had no subtlety, he was bad, but his father was infinitely worse.

“What? The send-off party before we’re all condemned to hell? Albus snarled sarcastically, taking another grape.

“Albus you’re not being very fair.”

Harry took a deep breath and put his hands on the table, trying to keep his temper. Albus half-jokingly replied, “I suppose I’m not, they train us.”

Harry began to lose his temper. “Albus, I will never understand why you hate Hogwarts so much.”

“Well, I’m so sorry I’m not this perfect popular person like everyone else.” Albus rolled his eyes. His father was really easy to anger. He wondered how everyone was still obsessed over him when he lost his temper so easily.

“Albus, I know you hate it when I say this, but if you just made better friends than you would really like Hogwarts!”

Albus saw red at this, and a mantra of HOW DARE HE GO THERE repeated in his head. Standing up and beginning to raise his voice he began to seethe.

“Oh, how would you know anything about my friends if you refuse to even meet them, James’s gang hex random people all the time, half of Lily’s friends have eating disorders. But no, Scorpius is the evil bad influence!”

Harry began to stand up and shout. Both of them knew that this argument would go nowhere, they had it too many times not to, but it didn’t do anything to stop them nonetheless.

“Because James and Lily’s friends don’t influence them, ever since meeting Scorpius on day one you have been unpleasant, surly and hide up in your room all day!”

“Have you considered that your precious Hogwarts is the cause of all of my ‘unpleasantness’!” Albus mocked, a mighty scowl formed on his face.

“No! I know the Malfoys! I was there for their hearings! Just because they aren’t in Azkaban doesn’t mean what they did was right! Do you know what they think of your aunt! Do you know what they think of your mother’s family! Your family! The only reason why you don’t is that I haven’t let you be exposed to it!”

“You realize what you just said there, right! The only reason why you hate them is that you aren’t man enough to admit that The War was a long time ago, and that people change, and that Draco Malfoy is a good enough person not to fill Scorpius up with all that shite!”

“Don’t you Dare lecture me about being a man you are a sixteen-year-old boy wearing nail varnish!” Harry’s eyes softened as Albus’s livid eyes widened with anger.

“OH, NO THE HORROR! HARRY POTTER’S SON IS SEEN WITH NAIL VARNISH! WHAT A HORRIBLE JOB HE’S DOING! FUCK YOU!” Albus screamed, pointedly giving his father the finger.

“Al!-” But Albus had already run upstairs. A glance into James’s room he could see James standing frozen. A pair of boxers in one hand a book in the other. “What are you looking at!” Albus snapped. 

“Nothing,” James said hurriedly before shutting the door. 

Albus, still fuming, stormed into his room and slammed the door shut. He was furious. He needed to cool down. He walked toward his black bed and flopped down with a mighty thunk. He stuffed his face into his pillow, so hard he was almost suffocating, and he screamed. He screamed through all of his family’s opinion of his house, he screamed through his father’s refusal to see his side in things, he screamed that he wasn’t anything like his brother and all the things that meant. 

He screamed.


	2. The Gathering Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some of the guests begin to arrive to the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2 Horay! I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who read chapter one and left a kudos or comment it means so much to me! Now onto the story,

After awhile Albus felt like the rage had been removed from his mind, he turned around and looked at the white ceiling. He wondered what Scorpius was doing. He was probably reading in the Malfoy library that he talked so fondly of. Whenever he thought of Scorpius during the summer, and Albus thought of him often, he imagined him curled up by a window basking warm sun reading a muggle book, relaxed in a way Scorpius could never be at “Hellwarts” as they both joked. He got up from his black bed, walked over to his equally black desk and took out a small metal key from his pocket. 

Albus’s desk was next to his bed, just under his window. It was medium-sized, not a particularly nice desk, but that didn’t matter. It's one thing of note was the drawer on the top hand left corner had a tiny lock on it, so small that when he got it installed (he bought a cheap kit at a muggle store and installed it at the dead of night), his family didn’t spare a glance. This is where he kept the things that he didn’t want his family, particularly James to find. The drawer held a few scandalous muggle magazines, a cheap burner phone (really he could that hide in plain sight, Albus doubted that anyone in his family could turn it on) which he stuffed in his back pocket, and most importantly, Scorpius’s letters to him. Reading Scorpius’s letters always relaxed him, Scorpius would relax him more, but because they couldn’t see each other over the holiday’s, letters would have to do. They all began the same, Dear My Dear Friend Albus,... and soon Albus was transported from his lonesome to his best friends addictive laugh, and intoxicating voice.

Albus was slumped over his desk chair, Scorpius’s letters slewn all over the desk. He must have read all of Scorpius’s letters twice. He was preparing to read them all a third time when he heard a knock on his door, he had to hastily stuff everything back into his drawer, 

“C-Come in!”

Albus shouted, and he saw his mom peek her head out 

“Albus, Teddy and Victoire are already here. Come down and say hi please.”

Ginny said sweetly, adding a smile at the end to show that it was non-negotiable. Albus followed his mother downstairs but whall she went into the living room to hug Teddy and Victoire Albus rested on the stair rail looking at the family scene. Victoire and Teddy were extremely noticeable, between their bright silver and (although covered in soot) electric blue hair they stood out against the red and black-haired Potters. 

“Hey Albus you going to stand up there staring like a creeper?” Teddy shot at Albus, a wide smile on his face, 

“Maybe Al doesn’t want to be near you when you are covered in soot!” said Victoire, rolling her light blue eyes. 

“Oh I suppose you have a point, scourgify!” Teddy waved his wand over his body and the soot vanished immediately 

“Albus, can you please come down?”

Harry raised his eyebrow and Albus knew what he really meant; “are we going to make a scene or is the fight between us over?”

“Sure.” Albus replied, walking down the stairs, giving a small, reassuring smile.

“Mum and Dad should be arriving in a few seconds,”

said Victoire, completely unaware of the silent communication between Albus and Harry Potter. There was a loud burst of flames from the fireplace and out stepped Bill, Fleur, Dominique and Louis who all ran to meet Victoire, 

“‘Arry, Ginny, James, Lily, Albus it iz so nice to see you again”

said Fleur firmly kissing them on both cheeks. Albus was leaning against the staircase, bored already, and he was dreading for more people to come over and making the space feel cramped. Bill leaned over to Ginny, 

“Ron told me to tell you that the kids are coming over with Perce and they’re coming down with George.” Ginny nodded. 

“Dominique, can you please set me up with one of your friends?”

James was leaning against the chimney putting on his most innocent face and unassuming smile 

“James I would not trust you with my pet rock!” 

“Is that a no though?” Joked Teddy, much to the scoff of Dominique

“Lily I love your hair, how did you get it like that?” Victoire mused on the other side of the room sitting on the edge of the chair nearest Albus.

“Well I used old rag curlers,” Lily leaned in and giggled scandalously “and a spell that I found in Witch Weekly,” 

Victoire put her hand to her mouth and stood up from the edge of the chair, she had such a nervous expression on her face that made Albus listen in, _whatever she’s about to say, it’s going to be interesting_ he thought to himself. 

“I only ask because, well- I think Teddy is going to propose,” 

she whispered so quietly that Albus almost wanted to say, “Come again?” But from Lily’s expression of shock and excitement confirmed it. 

“Really Vic? You have to tell me everything” Lily whispered, excitement clearly getting the best of her. _Yeah Vic, please, tell her everything!_

Albus needed to know if he was getting a new god-sister, and most importantly if there was a big Weasley Wedding as the papers called them, there would be so much attention that Albus doubted he would be able to have a peaceful meal for weeks! Not to mention after Molly’s wedding last year some stupid paper did a list of all of the most eligible Weasley Clan bachelors and bachelorettes, Albus ranked last because apparently 

“he is the only Weasley Clan bachelor yet to have a girlfriend, and he is rumoured to be a bit of a fixer-upper. ‘Always brooding he is, you don’t really know if he hates you or not, and he’s quite antisocial- barely talks to anyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some weird things going on there- I mean, he was the only one sorted into Slytherin’ says one student that wishes to remain anonymous. ‘Shoddy at magic too, I’ve seen first years do better wandwork then him’ says another. But just because he hasn’t found the right girl yet doesn’t mean he won’t, you know what they say about the emotionally distant- they are secretly the most loving and understanding men on the planet once you break through to them. And I have a feeling once he finds the right girl, he’ll love her unconditionally, even if she has some work cut out for her.” 

Albus didn’t care if witches found him approachable, he could think about two-hundred other things he would rather do with his time, and that includes homework. But for months people snickered at him or asked him if he had a girlfriend, For at least two months his usual nickname “Slytherin Squib” had been replaced with a new one, “Number ten” a callback to his ranking on the list. Of course, he would be happy for Teddy and Victoire if they did get married, they seemed like they loved each other. But in Albus’s opinion, the last thing that his family needed was more attention, and weddings were the only thing that gave the family more attention than a misquoted remark. 

“No, wait till later when everyone else gets here,”

_Dammit,_ Albus thought, _I’ll never get any details now!_

It was at these times that he wished he was still good friends with Rose, not only would he be able to task her with getting all the details from Victoire, but he’d also have someone to talk to during these dull family reunions. Albus could probably slip away when more people came, then claim that he was using the bathroom to his mother later. Albus, deep in thought over how he was going to make his exit gave a startled yip when the fireplace roared with green flames and out stepped Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, Lucy, Molly and her husband David, Rose then finally Hugo. 

_Dammit, I’ve summoned her._

“Surprised Albus?”

Rose chuckled. Albus gave her a hard glare in return. Which caused his parents to sigh and roll their eyes.

“Rose! Lucy! Molly!” Lily excitedly waved the girls over.

“So nice to see you guys,” Victoire hugged them.

“So nice to see you too.” Lucy sweetly smiled.

“Vic has something she wants to share.” 

“Lily!”

“What?” Rose puzzled.

“Later, some people are watching.” Victoire said through gritted teeth. Albus, now staring at the fireplace with great interest honestly couldn’t tell whether it was pointed more towards Lily or himself.

“Al have you been listening to everything we’ve been saying?” Lily interrogated, a hint of alarm in her voice.

“What?” said Albus, trying to maintain a look of bemused innocence, but his excuse was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a car coming from the backyard.

“Oh my goodness Uncle George actually did it!” Said Molly with a clear voice of disapproval. 

“I can’t believe it either!” Victoire excitedly ignored Molly’s tone.

“Do you think that he’ll let us ride in it?” exclaimed Lily.

“He better!” Lucy finished “Come on, let’s go see the damn thing!” and with that, the girls ran out like children. 

In fact, children would exactly be how Albus described his family at that moment. Even the adult’s eyes lit up with a long-forgotten joy as they raced out of the living room into the backyard to see the new car. Albus smirked, it was just a car. He thought to himself, 

_Maybe if they were like Scorpius and had never seen things like cars before the rush would be endearing, but every single one of them had ridden in cars, they weren’t something new. Even with all of the improvements Uncle George had made it was still just a stupid car._

Albus was thinking, ranting about how silly the new car was when he realized that he was being watched. Teddy was in leaning on the wall opposite to him giving him the same searching look that Albus swore he’s seen on James’s face before. It reminded him of the times at the beach when they were all so much smaller. James and Teddy pretended they were brothers the whole time. Strangers easily bought it, and none of the adults had it in them to correct them. 

Teddy walked over to Albus with a determinedly kind smile on his face.

“Hey Albus, not feeling cars today?”

“Uhhh” Albus awkwardly shifted, he hated talking to people, he was so bad at it. Teddy probably secretly hated him but couldn’t find the words to tell him. His whole family was the same. 

“I just don’t see what all the fuss is about, I mean it’s just a car.”

“Come on, you have to be a little bit excited, Nan say it can fly”

“So does that mean we can go fly it about, that sounds like a good idea.” Albus added sarcastically.

Teddy laughed. “Well, you’re not wrong. Didn’t Harry do something like that in his second year? Nearly got himself expelled didn’t he.”

_of course, everything comes back to him._

“Did he.” Said Albus dryly. Teddy, realizing he had done something wrong gracefully backtracked.

“Who cares really, you excited about the new school year?” 

“No.”

_This is why I always tell the truth._

Currently Teddy’s mouth was a fine line, and his eyes were wide with embarrassment. It was quite funny. But Albus wasn’t a monster, so he bailed him out a little.

“But I suppose it will be nice to see Scorpius again.”

“Yeah seeing friends again is always fun, who likes school anyway?” Teddy chuckled.

“Well certainly not me.” Albus let himself laugh with Teddy.

“Why do you hate school so much anyway?”

This completely threw Albus for a loop, not the question itself, he had heard it too many times. But the genuineness of it. Teddy sounded like he genuinely wanted to why Albus hated Hogwarts so much. Albus wanted to say; 

“I have been jinxed on every floor, and every smelly bathroom. Literally, me and Scorpius mapped it out. I can barely do magic without practicing it at least 100 times, and I can’t move closer up front because then the Gryffindors will take that as an open invitation to practice their spells on me. Usually if groups of Gryffindors team up on Slytherins then other Slytherins, will particularly older ones will get involved. But because James and Freddie seem to think that their life’s true purpose is to make sure that the dungeons always smell like dungbomb, they all hate me for not putting a stop to it. As if I could ever tell James and Freddie what to do! Especially because every time I bring up this up, something that any reasonable parent would punish, you know, throwing dungbombs into students living areas, especially in the dungeons, where smells never leave, just get more faint. They always say, ‘Oh, Fred loved throwing dungbombs’, ‘Oh, James hated Slytherins too!’. Never mind the fact that they are making life so much more difficult for me, and never mind the fact that, and controversial opinion here, Slytherins don’t deserve to have their backyard pelted with dungbombs! If the Slytherins came up to Gryffindor Tower with a quarter of the actual shit thrown our way then there would be a national outcry about the ‘Scary Dark Slytherins’ lurking around where they don’t belong. But with them, it’s just ‘Living up to their name’. As if that’s a good reason to treat people worse. And everyone seems to just go along with the idea that I’m either ‘The Reason the Chosen One Drinks’, this selfish prick who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and is bad at everything, or this deeply interesting loner archetype and all I need is the right girl to fix me in some way! And if I do anything that disproves or contradicts then I’m crazy! Have you tried to care for people when they don’t actually want you to care because you’ll fit into your box easier? Surprisingly difficult. People look at me with surprise when I say ‘I’m worried about James or Lily or Scorpius or anyone because they’re in the hospital wing and I hope they’re okay.’ They’re shocked that I could care about my family. Do I really come off as that heartless and unfeeling? Do I? Do I really seem like I would not care if the people I love are hurt? Does my family even know I love them? That I worry when they make a stupid, and most importantly dangerous quidditch moves for no reason? Do you know that I love you Teddy? You're like a big brother to me and I wonder if I’m like a little brother to you?”

But it seemed too sentimental for such a casual moment, and Teddy probably wanted to see Uncle George’s new car. So he opted for the easier.

“Dunno. Kids are dicks. Let’s go out and see the car.”

“Al, you know you can talk to me right bro.”

“I’m not your ‘Bro’” 

Albus scoffed, trying to impersonate the way James talked to his friends. But he saw the way Teddy’s eyebrows fell half a centimetre and he realized what he just said could be interpreted as, and that you couldn't just say things like that to orphans, so he tried to get his foot out of his mouth by correcting himself.

“You’re too smart to talk like that, you sound like James on one of his smart days.”  
Teddy, looking slightly relieved, laughed. 

“Come on, let’s go out to see the car so you can scowl at it and pretend to be uninterested.” 

this time it was Albus’s turn to laugh. And they walked out of the backdoor to the rest who were jittering excitedly about the car.


	3. The Gathering Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Weasley Potter Gathering goes into full swing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took SOO much longer than planned, I lost my motivation for a bit, this was already written but I didn't post it because of said lack of motivation, then I got this lovely comment which has inspired me to finish this story, I'm already writing cha4 which will come out when it's done!

George’s car was a cherry red SUV. Albus thought it looked kinda tacky with its gold figurehead WWW (standing for Weasley Wizard Weezy’s) in cursive writing. But if anyone else agreed with him they didn’t let it show. The family crowded and cooed around the bright car.

“Does it really fly?” James awed.

“Yep, it can go up to 150 feet in the air,” answered Freddie, all too happy to answer questions and being the center of attention.

“What about the muggles, can’t they see?” Molly questioned accusingly. Her arms crossed and her brow furrowed. Behind her, Percy raised his brow and nodded at George who rolled his eyes in return.

“She has a powerful deflector spell on her. As soon as she leaves the ground no muggle will be able to spot her unless they look real close, and what will they believe, a trick of the light? Or a flying car?” 

Freddie interrupted George who was clearly about to say something similar, looking at his son with pride. 

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“It’s still illegal, aren’t you afraid of being arrested?” Percy accused George, now guarding the attention of the rest of the family.

“You know what you’re right.” Percy looked pleased with this. “Oi Harry, you gonna arrest me?”

“Not unless you give me a reason to,” Harry shot back glancing between George and Percy.

“Well, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement has spoken,” said George, grinning.

The rest of the family chuckled whall Percy scowled. Albus felt bad for him. He had been on his end of things more times then he could count and he knew how humiliating it could be. But snapping to Percy’s defence would only cause James and Freddie to team up and xerox in on him. Pointing out every flaw, every insecurity that he had. In Albus’s experience, moments like these, excited but slightly bored caused his family, especially the younger ones to act up and try to find someone to bother. For the adults, it was almost always Percy, for the kids it was Albus.

“Hey, Albus,”

Surprised Albus turned around to see Rose smiling sweetly.

_Ugh, I wonder what she wants._

“How have you liked your summer?”

“Oh, it was fine. Better than school at least,” he chuckled.

Rose's smile turned into a frown for a moment, but then the moment past and the smile was back up.

“Well, I loved my summer! I read so many books, I’m getting into a really good fantasy series.” 

“Was it written by a wizard or a muggle?” Albus questioned.

Rose’s eyes widened, Albus could practically hear her train of thought; “Is he being elitist, does he think that I shouldn’t be reading books written by muggles?” It made Albus want to scream and roll his eyes. 

“Muggles make better fantasy books, don’t they? I think it’s because they don’t know things like that exist.”

“Yes, yes, I find they do too,”

Then in Albus’s opinion, the worst thing that can happen between two people happened. Awkward silence. Albus and Rose had fallen into the trap of small talk. They could hear James and Freddie talking about whether or not they could convince Uncle Geroge to let them drive the car sometimes.

“Dad will never give us the keys, Mum would kill him, but I think that if we snuck it out, and he found out he wouldn’t say anything,”

“Yeah, as long as we’re careful. Do you think we could fly it to Ali’s?” Albus could hear the hope in his voice.

Freddie scoffed “Dude, just ask her out,” with a tone reeking with of course

Albus wanted to roll his eyes, girls swooned for James, everyone loved him. _If everyone liked me like they liked James,_ Albus thought _I would never be nervous for a girl, there would always be another one ready and waiting,”_

“So how did you do on your OWLS?” Rose asked a hint of triumph in her voice.

“Probably worse than you,”

Albus was done with this conversation, whatever Rose wanted from him she wasn’t going to get, and he wanted to go back up to his room.

“Mum told me that you got an O in potions,” she raised her brow “that’s not nothing Albus.”

Albus mentally scoffed, _is this what she wants from me? Something to do with potions? Isn’t she better at potions then me?_

“Potions are easy really, all you have to do is follow instructions,”

“I only got an E, I was 4 points away from an O” her lips pursed, “but an E all the same,”

“I didn’t know that, must have sucked,”

Albus felt a pang of sympathy echo through his chest, he knew how hard she worked, almost all the times he had seen her at Hogwarts, she was in the library with her nose in a thick textbook.

“It did,” she said softly as she looked down and silence fell again.

Sensing the end of the conversation Albus began to walk away. “Well, it was nice talking to you,” 

Rose’s brow shot to her forehead and she put her arm out to stop Albus, 

“Al, wait!”

“It’s Albus, see you at dinner,” he gave her a tight smile which she returned.

“See you,” Rose mumbled as Albus walked away to his room.

…. 

The dinner was excellent. Three courses of mashed potatoes, fried fish, pies and curry hit the spot. Perhaps a little too much, as everyone’s trousers felt a bit tighter then they did before dinner. There was a hearty chatter in the air, and everyone had a soft smile on their face, even Albus had to work hard to keep up his usual scowl.

“It’s so interesting the American system,” Percy told Albus. 

Currently, they were both leaning against the fireplace talking about the many different wizarding cultures.

“They have a Ministry of Magic as we do, but all it does is registration, dealing with muggles, aurrors, laws and courts. Everything else is privatized,”

Albus scrunched up his nose “So they have to pay for everything? That seems a bit elitist,” 

“It is,” Percy nodded “but not much more elitist then our government was before,”

“And our government had to go through a bunch of changes, I know, we learn about them at school,” Albus reminded him.

Percy put a reminiscent look on his face, “they teach that stuff in school now?” Albus nodded, “god I suppose they do, it’s been almost 25 years!”

Albus began to feel awkward, he has had this conversation before and it always ended with people listing of his family’s achievements, as if he hadn’t already heard them a million times.

“Anyways I’m losing track, I hear you’re pretty good at potions and herbology, those are two skills that could make you go far, those elitist Americans do make quite a bit of money,”

 _A job in America, I bet they won’t even know my name!_ Albus thought.

“I suppose I would be interested,”

“That’s excellent! It’s high time you started to consider what you’re going to do after Hogwarts, I have a few friends-”

“Hey Albus, hey Uncle Percy,” James interrupted. 

“Oh, hello James,” Percy responded cheerily.

“What.” Demanded Albus.

“Mum’s asking for you,” James said, flashing a smile.

Percy nodded “It appears you’re needed, we’ll talk later,”

“Yes, we’ll talk later,” Albus told him before walking away.

James lead him through the kitchen, past their mother who was talking to his Aunt Hermione.

Albus shot a questioning look at James, “Mum’s over there?”

James rolled his eyes, “You didn’t think I’d leave you to talk to Uncle Percy did you?”

“Wait, so, Mum didn’t want to talk to me?”

“You got that did ya,” James opened the backdoor to revel, Teddy, Louis, Locan and Freddie.

_Great.i Albus thought, _Just great._ _

_“Yo James is back!” Freddie hooted, “And you brought Al, oh ALBUS- fuck sorry,”_

__

__

“It’s fine,” Albus narrowed his eyes at Freddie.

“Freddie, how much have you had to drink?” Teddy cautioned.

“S’bit,” Freddie slurred.

“I’m going to go in and get you a glass of water,”

“You need to loosen up Tedster! So what if I’m havin’ a bit a fun,”

“Fun isn’t being publicly drunk,” Locan interjected, “Teddy, get some bread while you’re at it, sponge up the booze”

Teddy nodded in agreement, “Yep, good idea,” and then quickly left.

“‘M fine,” Freddie hummed closing his eyes then promptly keeled over and vomited.

Locan went rather white, “Oh dear,”

James grimaced and gave Freddie a sympathetic pat on the back, “Better out than in!”

Freddie stopped vomiting, standing up and wiping his mouth he mumbled, “I think I got it all out,”

“That’s good,” Locan said softly, still a bit paler than usual.

Albus took out his wand, waved it at the vomit and banished it. When he put his wand back he saw the gawking mouths of James, Freddie and Locan hanging in comical ‘O’s’.

“What?” Albus questioned.

“You can’t do magic outside of school, it’s illegal,” Locan whispered, glancing around for non-existent onlookers.

“Have you ever heard the phrase; ‘It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught’? We’re with about 20 grown wizards, the trace doesn’t know one wizard from another,” Albus condescended.

“No, and I’m pretty sure laws don’t work like that,” Locan squeaked.

“God, look at you two!” James laughed, “A Snake and a Badger!”

Locan rolled his eyes, Albus snapped, “Shut up James! It’s no big deal!”

Freddie’s eyes grew wide, “Are you saying that you’ve done this before!”

Locan grew whiter than Albus had ever seen him, “Albus, you’re going to go to Azkaban!”

Albus gave a dramatic eye roll “I’m too careful, if it was James or Freddie, then you’d have to be worried,”

“Hey! Not fair!” Freddie objected, he narrowed his eyes in realization, “Hey, what would you need magic for anyway?”

Now it was Albus’s turn to go shockingly white. He stuttered out “None of your business” after realizing that was too suspicious he added, “I spilled some ink, broke some of mum’s nice plates”

Unconvinced, as he and Albus both knew that both their parents thought that china was rather frilly James narrowed his eyes, “Uh-huh. Mum’s ‘Nice Plat’s’” he said with air quotes.

“Come on tell us, if you trust us to keep your vagrant criminal activities a secret you can trust us to keep this under the radar,” Locan jested.

Albus defensively snapped, “But I don’t.” Locan, Freddie and James all hid the sting very well, but Albus could still see their grimace.

 _‘Really Albus, do you have to be so mean?’_ Albus heard the voice of everyone who had asked him that question before. _Yes, yes I do,_ he responded.

At this moment, Albus looking down, slightly ashamed, Locan looking at the hedges, James looking at the sky, and Freddie looking at the door, Teddy decided to reappear with a big glass of water.

“I couldn’t find the bread but-” 

He was interrupted by Freddie taking the glass of water and chugging it in about five seconds flat.

“Ahh, delicious,” Freddie smacked his lips.

“Soo,” Teddy began, taking his attention away from Freddie, “What are we talking about,”

Freddie opened his mouth clearly about to tell all about the past few minutes, especially the revelations about Albus, but James stopped him and smiled.

“We’re just talking about the new chaser on the Tornadoes,”

“Oh, right her. what’s her name?” Locan asked.

“Amanda DeLano,” Freddie told him with a lustful look in his eyes.

 _Oh god please no!_ Albus silently screamed.

“Actually,” Teddy smirked, “She prefers Mandy,” 

“YOU MET HER!” James and Freddie both jumped from excitement, while Locan looked at him like he just sprouted a majestic pair of wings.

“Yep, saw her at the ministry, showed her towards the elevators,”

“Does she look the same, you know,” Freddie made a crude gesture that looked like he was holding two beach balls to his chest. 

“You’re a pervert.” Albus scoffed.

James rolled his eyes and gave him a playful nudge, “Like you don’t want to know,”

Teddy leaned in and whispered a single word “Bigger.” to a sea of dramatic gasps and Locan’s declaration that she was his future wife and mother of his children.

“But seriously though,” Teddy added “She was really nice and polite, we’re being arseholes” he realized.

“Just realized that have you?” Albus rolled his eyes and then felt a distinct buzz in his pocket. _About damn time_ he thought to himself, _I need to get out of here, and no one can wonder where I’ve gone_. He began to ponder; _Say I need to go to the bathroom? No, someone might joke that I’m spending a long time in there or go check on me. I need an excuse that will give me plenty of alone time, won’t get me in too much trouble and will cover for me if someone tries to find me and I’m not there…”_

And then it hit him. “I can’t believe you’re all so obsessed with that stupid sport, it doesn’t make any sense!”

Shocked faces all around. They looked like Albus had just round-house bitch slapped them.

“Albus, always one for a joke,” Teddy chuckled nervously, eyes darting between Albus, Freddie and James.

“I think I just saw Hugo and ‘Sander sneak the biscuit plate off somewhere, I’m gonna, go find them,” Locan speed walked away, throwing nervous glances behind him.

_‘Dammit, one less witness- actually- that might be better more hearsay’_

“I suppose we all have our opinions…” Teddy spoke softly and had his hands up like he was trying to tame a spooked stallion.

“There opinions then there’s fact, Quidditch is dumb and makes no sense,”

“Where’s this coming from Al,” Said James with bemused annoyance, a bit worse than Freddie’s glare, but he was getting there, Albus would have him screaming bloody murder before you could flick a wand. _Time to raise the volume_ He thought.

“My name IS NOT Al, IT’S ALBUS FOR THE LAST TIME!” Albus screamed, “What if I called you ‘Jamie Baby’” He mocked.

“Well that was uncalled for,” Teddy went on his heels and began to mutter things that would diffuse the situation if it was said to the group, not to himself.

“WHAT THE HELLS WRONG WITH YOU!” Freddie took the bait. And James was giving him a hard glare now.

“MY PROBLEM IS THAT THIS FAMILY DOESN’T SEE WHAT A STUPID SPORT QUIDDITCH IS! WHAT’S THE POINT OF A QUAFFLE IF IT’S THE SNITCH THAT’S GOING TO WIN THE GAME!” Albus had to suppress his laughter, people cared so much about quidditch to a genuine fault.

“NOT ALL GAMES ARE WON WITH A SNITCH CATCH!” Enraged Freddie.

Albus then began to think of ways to conclude the argument. “YOU’RE SO DAFT! IF YOU REALLY WANTED TO WIN AT QUIDDITCH THEN YOU’D HAVE TWO KEEPERS AND THE REST WOULD BE SEEKERS!”

Freddie went alarming red at this “QUIDDITCH DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY YOU IDIOT!”

“THAT’S WHY IT MAKES NO SENSE!” And with that Albus dramatically stormed away, suppressing laughter leaving Teddy and James opened eyed and slack-jawed.

Immediately when Albus got up to his room he pulled out his phone. It was cheap, really cheap, £25.50 cheap, and something called a flip, apparently, it wasn’t in style. Albus always wondered why muggle technology would go in and out of style but he supposed it was like clothes.

K: plans fell thru!  
K: u up???  
K: final final goodbye sounds fun ;)  
A: it does where are you  
K: block away <3  
A: Im there

Albus walked into his parent's room at the end of the hall. It was a reasonably big room, with sapphire walls, a big bed with too many throw pillows and a black fur-lined quilt embroidered with the universe, enchanted so it would change with the night sky. When he was younger he would trace the shooting stars and annoy his parents into telling him about the constellations.

Albus shook his head ‘I don’t have the time’ he walked over to the large glass pane shutter window and peered at the end of the block. Sure enough, he saw a 2003 silver Hyundai parked about six cars down from his house. He smiled. But then his heart dropped into his stomach when he heard his mother’s muffled voice knocking, presumably, on his door. 

“Albus! Albus, we need to talk,”

‘It’s now or never’ he thought as he threw open the shutters took out his wand and cast a cushioning charm below. Then he waved his wand again “Accio pen and paper,” a notebook flew from out of the nightstand for him to quickly write an assurance to his mother that he would be back later and not be mad which he threw on the bed with his wand. He heard his door opening.

“Albus?” his mother sounded slightly confused.

‘Time to go’ and with that, he took a running jump out of the window determinedly not looking down. When he landed in a tuck position, the ground was soft like he had fallen a much shorter distance. He gave himself a mighty heave up and began to sprint to the silver car where he landed face down in the backseat.

“Drive.” he ordered and the car sped off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you soo much to everyone who clicked on this work, if you liked it it would be amazing if you left a kudos or comment, this chapter wouldn't be out if it wasn't for all the people who left kudos and comment previouly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who's the Person texting Albus???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wouldn't be here if it wasn't for sxftbubblez, so pat yourself on the back for lighting a fire under my ass!

The seat of the car smelt faintly of Fritos’s crisps and weed. Albus stayed there for a moment, hoping that the marijuana residue would help him forget the talking to he was going to get when he had to go home.

“You better make this worth it,” 

“Ha! You have my word,”

Albus sat up, the car was old and messy, but it was clearly very loved. The backseat had been converted to a sofa type thing, a soft fitted grey sheet with holes cut out for the belts, two, clearly confiscated from the bin, orange throw pillows and a ratty, green knitted blanket that was mainly for modesty. He was pretending in his head that it had all been boiled from what was supposed to be their last hurrah, which was a very messy affair, but Albus seriously doubted it.

They were going to their usual rendezvous, pulled off a dirt road near the lake, Albus found it very calming there, even though his first five times he was certain that he was facing his end, he could now appreciate the scenic drive through the bumpy dirt road to the wooded clearing. The sun was setting, it was getting cold. ‘Shame,’ thought Albus, ‘swimming would have been fun.’ 

Albus could hear songbirds singing about the end of summer, something splashing in the lake, and the car door opening and closing. Albus’s heart rate quickened ‘finally getting somewhere!’ He was Kieran's face through the car window, long bleached blond hair, tan, freckly skin, sharp cheekbones that reminded Albus of Scorpius, and brown eyes. The door near Albus’s feet sprung open and he felt the cool summer air hit him about the same time as Kieran’s lips. Kieran shut the car door and Albus took the opportunity to begin unbuttoning his shirt. Keiran went right back to kissing him and began to make a trail of hickeys down Albus’s chest.

……….

Kieran was buckling his belt back on when Albus gave a closed-lipped smile and tried to look sexy, “So, you’re going back to school,”

“Yes I am, are you? Or have you been lying to be rid of me by the end of the summer?” Kieran chuckled with his signature smirk playing at his lips and pulled out two joints from his pocket. “Maybe these will loosen your tongue, or maybe I haven’t done my job right,” he leaned over and kissed Albus thoroughly. Albus pulled back, this was getting a bit much for him. 

“You should have led with the weed,”

“But then I would always wonder if you were here only for drugs and not my sparkling personality,” Kieran lit a joint and gave it to Albus, who took a drag before swapping it back with the other joint that Kieran was just about to light.

“What-”

“I’m going to save this for a rainy day,” Albus put the unlit joint in his pocket.

“No drugs in the illusive boarding school?” Kieran teased. 

Albus snorted with the mental picture of a few seventh years behind the greenhouses blowing purple bubbles, “No weed, if that’s what you mean,”

Kieran softly smiled “I envy you really-”

“You don’t.”

“-No parents, a school full of lonesome boys,”

“Why would you think that I would want that,” Albus said cautiously.

“No parents or a school full of boys,” Kieran took another hit of the joint and passed it to Albus by putting his hand on Albus’s thigh. 

“Either or,” Even though Albus only wanted to hear the latter, which was filling him with rage.

“As you’re a teenaged boy I assume that you enjoy not being nagged all the time, and as for the school full of boys-” Kieran trailed off, raising his eyebrows suggestively. 

“You know I’m not- that.” Albus was trying to keep the spite from his voice.

Keiran took the joint from Albus and took a long, infuriating, drag. “I know what you’ve told me,” he put on a mocking voice, “wanking with a bloke doesn’t make you gay,”

“And it doesn’t.” Albus gave Kieran his withering glare.

“Sure.” Keiran rolled his eyes and put out the joint in the ashtray between the two front seats, “come on” he said, “I’ll drive you home.”

Albus didn’t feel like sitting in the back seat so he walked out of the car, he heard Kieran getting into the driver’s seat. Albus looked around, taking in the woody clearing one last time, he had many fond memories here, before getting into the passenger's seat of the car.

The ride home was completely boring, Kieran began to blast his heavy metal music, Albus was sure all the drums and screechy vocals would turn Kieran deaf one day. When they got a half block away from the Potter house Keiran knew to stop, Albus was trying to ignore the awkward goodbye and eventual fight with his mother that was coming his way.

“Well I suppose this summer has been fun,” Kieran awkwardly drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

“Yeah it was, time to face mum and dad now!” Albus gave a tight-lipped smile which Kieran returned. Albus then hopped out of the car, speed walking to his house preparing to face his mother’s wrath.

Albus opened the door as slowly as and as quietly as possible, wincing when the door made a quiet creaking sound. Albus only opened the door as much as he needed to fit, creeping in like a cat, and then quietly closing the door, letting the knob turn back slowly so it wouldn’t make a loud clicking noise. Albus turned to go up the stairs before he was faced with all the adults and a few cousins' faces turned staring at him. 

“Albus.” Ginny had her ‘You’re In So Much Trouble But We Have Company’ mum voice on, Albus winced, _why did I ever think going out was a good idea_ “go up to your room, we’ll talk later,” Albus quickly nodded, and ran up not wanting to cause more of a scene. When Albus got up to his room, and laid down on his bed he realized two things: 1) He was very lucky that mum didn’t scream at him in front of everyone, and 2) he was absolutely exhausted. So as Albus was imagining the lecture he was going to get, he drifted off to sleep.

Albus awoke to his dad gripping his foot and scowling. Albus squawked and sat up, leaning on the headboard. Ginny was learing over him. dammit, I’m really in for it

“What did you think you were doing?” 

“Me and James got into a fight so I took a walk outside to cool off,” Albus patted himself on the back for such a believable lie.

“Uh huh.” Ginny glared at Albus, sometimes he forgot where his glare came from, he felt his eyes tear up.

“Yup,” Albus ran a hand over his eyes.

“I just want to know,” Ginny spoke evenly, but every word was seeped in threat. “Why you embarrassed us in front of the entire family like that?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think,” Albus sputtered.

Harry began to open his mouth before Ginny silenced him with a look. “No. I don’t think you did.” Ginny fixed a hard look, “Albus you have to stop being so selfish. You need to start thinking about how your actions affect other people, you’re almost a man now, you have to start thinking.”

“James never thinks!” Albus began to protest.

“Stop comparing yourself to your brother Albus!” Ginny snapped, “James doesn’t scream at his family then run off for an hour!”

“I’m sorry,” Albus muttered.

Ginny took a deep breath “You better be, we’re taking your wand away till you get on the train,”

“Ok,” Albus said, _not that bad, only 48 hours_

“And you have to eat dinner once a week with your family.” Ginny finished.

“What!” Albus protested, “Why!”

“Because I’m tired of the pettiness between the three of you, do you think I liked my brothers as a child? No, but we all grew up and learned to get along. It’s the last year you’ll all be together, I know you don’t see it now but this is a last chance to really bond before you’re all swept up in adult life.”

Albus didn’t really know what to say to that so he just nodded and said “okay mum,”

Ginny smiled “Ok, we'll let you go back to sleep now,” And with that she quickly left, Harry quickly followed behind her before stopping at the door and glancing at Albus.

“If you don’t you have no idea how much money we’re willing to invest in howlers,” Harry chuckled, “Oh and Albus? Put some bruise remover on your neck before your mother sees. Harry shut the door as Albus’s hand flew up to his neck, feeling the telltale sensation of forming bruises.

“Merlin!”

Albus swore as he slumped down on his bed, this is going to be a long 48 hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is the second time I've been spurred into action by a comment, those literally move the story forward so thank you! Maybe some suggestions for next chapter? All I know is that we're meeting Scorpius but I want something interesting to happen you know? Also if anyone has any oc's please describe them to me so I can put them in!


End file.
